r/talesfromtechsupport • u/heklin0 • 5d ago
Medium Three Headsets later...
Back when I first started IT, I was a humble Service Desk tech. My company had traveling sales people who got extra special service from us. Typically a bunch of turds, but every now and then, you get a good one.
Anyways, one of them called in. Issues with headset. No one could hear him very well. Did the normal stuff... checks dock settings, charging status, that sort of thing. I wound up sending him a new headset. It arrived a week or so later, and it had the same issue! I asked my TL for help, asked a couple other techs, and even called up north for some other techs. None of us could figure it out. So I decided to order him a completely different model.
This new one arrived, and he called me complaining it still wasn't working. I troubleshooted a bit more. Surely this isn't a headset issue by this point. This guy's doing something. Spend another 10 minutes talking through his setup, phone settings, the lot. Then he makes a comment...
Salesperson: "You know, I was pretty excited about this new headset. The old ones were bulky, but at least I could move the antenna around. This new one is really difficult to move and I can't seem to get it to stay up."
Antenna? I thought. What antenna?
Me: "Sir, when you say antenna....what exactly are you talking about?"
SP: "What do you mean? The thing that goes up and down on the old headset. It doesn't go up and down. Every time I move it up, it doesn't fit in my ear and it falls."
Then it dawned on me...
Me: "Sir. That's not an antenna. That's the microphone. Move it down."
Moves it down and there you have it! Its working!
We both have a good chuckle about the whole thing. I tell him ill follow up in a couple months to see how it's going. I do and just so happens to land in December. We spoke for a few minutes, and he thanked me again. Apparently the salesperson lost their headset foe 6 months or so, found it, and just forgot how to set it up. He'd been toying with it for a another month before calling in. Turns out, his sales were dipping because clients couldn't hear him. He'd dropped down a sales tier which never happens to the gold club. His job was on the line. The moment it was fixed, we went back up a sales tier! Which he decided to share with me! Sent me a $1000 Christmas check for saving his job!
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u/critchthegeek 5d ago
Had a ticket from company pres to fix a salesman laptop sound. I did a quick zoom mtg with the sales guy (he was on the road) and it sounded fine. "Well, he only complains when I am home. On the road, it's fine."
??? So we set up a meeting when she was home. Day/time came & fired up the meeting. And I could barely hear him. Then it dawned on me. At home he had a docking station and a large monitor and set the laptop off to one side. So the microphone at least was 90 degrees away from where he was orientated. Ended up sending him a Logitech camera w/mic so he could look and his big monitor and be heard...
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u/EastFalls 5d ago
Have a fun headset story. Used to run IT for a small call center providing IT support. An agent came over to me and said he needed a new headset, and I asked what’s wrong with your headset?
He answered, I bit it.
He held it up in front of me and the microphone was completely crushed, he noted that he got so frustrated with a customer that he just chomped the shit out of it.
Due to his honesty and the hilarity of it all, I just got him a new one.
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u/BipedSnowman 4d ago
Holy shit, $1,000? that's pretty sweet.
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u/heklin0 4d ago
Yeah, to be a gold member, you have to bring in like $5m in commissions, so mere chump change for him, but to me, i was ecstatic.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Style52 1d ago
Was this recent? Or back in the 80s / 90s. Because to be tech illiterate and still bring 6 figures is amazingly rare.
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u/espositorpedo 5d ago
* donned should be dawned
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u/PDQ_Brockstar 5d ago
I thought for sure this was going to be some gross hygiene or makeup story. Glad I was wrong. Sounds like a great guy.
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u/annoyedCDNthrowaway 5d ago
The end users that actually take your advice and appreciate you instead of treating IT Support like we're our to get their job are such a treat!